


Do you think it was fate?

by Daphne_Bassett



Category: Behind Her Eyes (TV)
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-03
Updated: 2021-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-16 15:48:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29827263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Daphne_Bassett/pseuds/Daphne_Bassett
Relationships: David Ferguson/Adele Ferguson, David Ferguson/Louise Barnsley
Kudos: 5





	1. Chance Encounters 1/2

Louise had gone through 6 outfits before she settled on what to wear - a burgundy dress that stopped just above her knees, so it looked professional but still showed off her legs. She put on strappy heels, her best green blazer and pirouetted in front of her mirror, and decided she didn’t look half bad.

Laura’s wolf whistle when she walked into the parlour, took the confidence right out of her step.

“What?” Louise asked in a panic, looking down at her outfit again. 

“You look great,” Laura said. “But I thought this was an office party.”

“It is. For my new job.” At long last, there had been an opening at the clinic two blocks from her flat. After two years of taking the train and not being able to pick up Adam after school, she’d finally landed the job she’d been coveting for as long as she first knew of it - walking distance from Adam’s school and three full days instead of five half days worked out as better after-school care rates. It even paid better and invited newly employed staff, who hadn’t even put in a full day at the office, to their annual Christmas party.

“Hoping to catch some rich doctor’s eye?” Laura asked now.

Louise snorted. That was one downside to her new place. “No one in this place is a day under 40.” Even the other secretaries were old. “I think there are two doctors in their 30s but they’re married with like a dozen kids.” She frowned down at her office again. “Is it really too much? I don’t want to give the wrong impression to people’s spouses?”

Adam looked up from his 

Laura looked her over critically. “Change the shoes to something less sexy and you’ll be fine. You can’t help the legs you’re born with but at least you won’t look like you’re flaunting them.”

Feeling a bit intimidated, Louise did as suggested. When she came out again, Laura was still smiling a bit too mischievously for her liking, but she gave her a thumbs up. 

Adam looked up from his cartoon and nodded sagely. “You look beautiful, Mom,” he decided. “Like a princess!”

“Awwww,” Louise said, feeling more gratified than she probably should at the approval of an 8-year-old. With a flurry of last-minute instructions that she suspected she had said several times already, she left the apartment. 

She checked her maps app for the address. Her brows lifted a little as she registered the location. That was the really nice part of town. This clinic must pay its doctors better than the last one. She took a cab, just so that she won’t be unduly flustered when she got there. Even though she had the contract in hand, a part of her felt that her attendance at this party was part of the interview process. Something she couldn’t afford to mess up. 

When the cab dropped her off, she stood in front of the gate and stared. Nice did not begin to describe this building. 

Louise wasn’t the kind of person to be easily intimidated but still… Not for the first time, she desperately wished that this had been a +1 event and she could have dragged Sophie with her. She’d have had someone ‘real’ to talk to, and not feel like she’d be under tension from the scrutiny as the new staff. She shuffled at her feet, half-considering just turning back and sending a text to that nice Dr. Sharma that she’d caught a bug.

“Now don’t run away!” someone said behind her.

Louise turned to see an old lady walking up the path, dressed smartly but sensibly in a cream suit. Sue, Louise recalled, from her last interview at the office. 

“I-I wasn’t…” Louise started.

Sue winked at her. “No one would blame you, dear. It looks a bit much from the outside, doesn’t it? But the Fergursons’s home is right and cozy inside. You came alone? What about your husband?”

Louise winced a little. “Divorced.”

“Good for you!” Sue declared. She took Louise’s arm firmly. “We’ll go in together. Us secretaries should stick together.”

Louise couldn’t help smiling gratefully as she walked in with the old lady. Maybe the night won’t be so bad after all. She’d stick to Sue, make small talk with her new co-workers and their spouses, have a nice meal, and then go home to text Sophie about her night in emojis. In a few hours, it would be over. 

  
  



	2. Chance Encounters 2/2

There was a buffet in the hall, and everyone just sat or stood to eat, talking in little clusters. The food was delicious, and Louise’s plan to stick to Sue and just make small talk went splendidly for about fifteen minutes before Dr. (Mrs.) Sharma spotted her and the old lady came over.

“You’re the new girl, aren’t you?” she asked cheerfully.

Louise was a few months shy of thirty, not a girl by any definition but she smiled gamely. “Louise Barnsley,” she said offering a hand to shake.

Dr Sharma laughed, bypassing the handshake into a hug. She tugged Louise’s arm, forcing her to put down her plate. “Come on, let me introduce you.”

Sue gave her a sympathetic look as she was led away. With a sinking feeling, Louise noticed that the old lady had had one too many. At least she was a friendly drunk, if a tad too friendly. She took Louise under her wing, and proceeded to introduce her to the other doctors and their wives. Or rather tried to. She fumbled names and made groan-worthy jokes, that everyone else seemed to take in stride, but made Louise uncomfortable as to whether her future co-workers enjoyed the newcomer being let in so soon on what were obviously inside jokes.

“That’s Rob’s second wife. And those are her second or third breast job,” she whispered loudly as they passed said ‘Rob’ and the blonde Mrs ‘Rob’.

“That’s Jude. Joined a few weeks ago. Dumped his college sweetheart once he started making more money. Tut tut tut.” Louise gave the ‘Jude’ an embarrassed smile but he just raised his drink at her.

“Now, where’s David? Hiding, no doubt. Hated these things with Adele and now…” She tutted again. “Why, hello darling!”

Dr. Sharma had appeared, as if on cue in front of them. “Hello love,” he said giving his wife a rueful smile. “I see you’ve met the new girl.”

Louise resisted the urge to roll her eyes again at the ‘girl’. She supposed she’d have to get used to it, being one of the youngest people in the office.

“Now, let’s get some tonic water,” he continued, detaching his wife from Louise’s arm.

“Dev, I only need that when I’m tipsy which I’m not,” she protested.

“It’s for me, my dear,” he said smoothly.

“Oh well, in that case.” She let herself be led away. “I’ll be right back, Louise dear.”

Dr. Sharma winked at Louise over his wife’s shoulder, and mouthed: “Run.”

Giggling, Louise made a beeline for the quiet corridor she had spotted earlier. It opened into the garden, and she took out her purse and the single cigarette she had smuggled in. She’d seen others lighting up at the party, but she had always been a private smoker, half-ashamed of the habit.

She switched on her lighter and heard a discreet cough.

Hastily, she dropped her stick. “I’m sorry!” a deep, accented voice said beside her. The man that seemed to have materialized from thin air, bent down to search for her errant cigarette. “I’ll get you another one.”

“It’s OK,” Louise said, embarrassed, waving him off. “I keep saying I’ll quit so that’s definitely my angel watching out for me.”

“Saint Bruno will need to have a word with your angel then.” The laugh under his words deepened his accent.

“Saint Bruno?” Louise asked, peering down at the man who was still determinedly rummaging in the grass for her stick. “Seriously, I won’t even smoke that if you…”

“Patron Saint of Cigarette smokers, of course,” he said, straightening up to his full height. All six feet and change of him.

Louise stared, and swallowed hard.

It wasn’t just that he was insanely tall, in a way that meant even in high heels, she had to tip her head back to look into his face. It was that he was ridiculously insanely good-looking for a man on this side of the TV screen. Dark, tousled hair. A beard that accentuated a sharp jawline and strong bone structure that made her think of romance novel heroes. Dark eyes that seemed to glint with humour.

She gulped a little, and felt her face heat up with embarrassment.

“Here you go,” he said, and it took her a moment to register the cigarette in his hand. “Don’t smoke that.”

Louise laughed self-consciously and reached for the stick. Their fingers brushed and she literally jumped at the charge that seemed to flow from his hand to hers. “Sorry,” she muttered.

“No problem,” he said in a suddenly strangled voice.

She made a show of opening her bag to put away the stick, so that she could keep her flushing face down. “Thanks. I’d have fetched it myself, you know,” she added, suddenly thinking of something. “I wasn’t littering or anything-”

He chuckled. “It was not a problem, really.” 

Louise glanced up at the smirk on his lips, and glanced away, feeling hot.

OK, random gorgeous guy at the party was almost definitely someone’s plus one because if she’d met him during her interview, she’d have noticed. She glanced discreetly at his hands but no wedding band.

Huh. She looked back at him with a shy smile, and noticed he was still staring back at her.

“So what are-”

“Were you hid-”

They both stopped, then laughed. “You first,” he said, gesturing grandly.

His cheeks had gone slightly red, which made Louise bolder. “I was going to ask if you were hiding out here?”

“You’d know that because you were doing the same thing.” He countered, with a grin. “Let me guess, Padma Sharma was showing you around?”

“Yes!” His words registered. “Wait, you know who I am?”

“We’re a small office, and you’re the newest youngest hire since Jude. Did Padma mention his fiancée?”

“Oh my goodness,” Louise said with a laugh. “Dr. Sharma told me to run. Literally!”

“Good man.” He snickered.

She smiled up at him, feeling flirty. “So what’s your excuse for hiding out here?”

He shrugged. “Curse of the introverts, I guess. I can only take so much of these large groups for so long.”

She nodded. “Me, too. Some people can just walk into a room, and own it, you know? Meet a group of strangers and become the life of the party in a few minutes.”

They smiled at each other, in companionable silence. He hesitated, then tipped his chin towards a deck table and chairs that she only just noticed. “Care for a drink out here? I can get us a bottle from inside?”

She ducked her head, feeling both eager and reluctant. “You were here first, maybe I should-”

“No!” he said quickly, almost shouted. When she looked up in surprise, his cheeks were red again. “I mean… I’d like your company.”

She smiled shyly. “I like yours, too.”

“So that’s yes to the drink?”

She nodded, suddenly unable to speak.

His eyes glinted. “Don’t go anywhere.”

He was back in a few minutes, with two bottles and two glasses. “I’m not trying to get you drunk!” he said at once, at her raised eyebrows. “I just forgot to ask what you’d like.”

“What’s this?” she said, picking up the bottle with the unfamiliar label. “MacAllan?”

“I highly recommend that. It’s Scottish,” he said, pouring himself a glass.

“Like you,” she said. Bit her lip, then blurted it out before she could second-guess herself. “I like your accent.”

His cheeks went red again. Three blushes in one evening? Louise felt giddy.

“I’m David, by the way. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

She took his offered hand, and felt that charge again. When she glanced up at him, she knew he felt it, too. “Likewise,” she said breathlessly.


End file.
